Nurses, mothers, sisters: Relational resilience and healing vulnerability in Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder and The Pull of the Stars

Abstract

Discussing two novels by acclaimed author Emma Donoghue, The Wonder (2016) and The Pull of the Stars (2020), this article hopes to attest the ways in which these works illustrate two oppos- ing forms of resilience and vindicate vulnerability as a path to healing. On the one hand, it will discuss how Donoghue’s work exposes an individual resilience based on notions such as endur- ance and duty, triggered by professional standards or a religious zeal, in which vulnerability is equated with weakness or incapacity. In this conception of resilience, the trauma of war or sexual abuse is forcibly silenced, and individuals are required to survive and adapt. On the other hand, it will address how she explores the potential of vulnerability, understood as a relational quality, to facilitate greater resilience, even if it exposes humans to pain and loss.